The Penn's Grove record., 1887-01-22
ALL FOL AMUSEMENT.

ing at the bright little brunette, who
was unusually brilliant il an evening
| dress of scarlet tissue, with white
| feather, flowers looping the oyersklrt
| and clusters of the same in the heavy,
| jetty braids of her lustrous hair.
III might as well have a good time
while | can, Aunt Mary" Nettie said,
twisting herself round before the long
| mirror, to admire her bright skirts and
| her tiny, slippered feet. "Only two
more weeks here and then 1 must go
back to Wheaton and bury myseltP'
''Nettiep'
s'There, auntie, don't look so
| Shocked 1 know you think my future
husband is perfection, and, between
ourselves, so do |. But, after all, a
| country parsons wife cannot expect
much gayety, and 1 mean to crowd all
| can into these last two weeks OF lib
erty.n
"Where are you going tonight"
$40 Mrs. Hunts. Mr.. and Mrs.
Reynolds will call for me- and Count
Lodoskl."
"Againl" Aunt Mary's voice was
stern, and there was an unusual seTe
rlty in her blue eyes. "You know how
| strongly / disapprove of your accepting
| the escort of Count Lodoskl."
But he is not my escort" said the
perverse Nettie. "Mr. aud Mrs. Rey-
| holds will call in their carriage. |
don't believe in the count any more
than you do, auntie; and all his pathe-
tic walls over his dear Poland fall upon
most unbelieviDg ears when sounded to
me, Notwithstanding he is most en-
tertaining company, dresses perfectly,
is handsome as an Adonis, and waltzes
like a dancing master. So, because he
amuses me l allow HIM to be my escort
during the absence Of the Rev. Alfred
Martin, who Will hold me soon fast and
firm in the chains Of matrimony. Harkl
The carriage is here. Good night
| Don't sit up for mel"
And wrapping herself in alarge cloak
of softeSt white cashmere, Nettie kissed
her aunt, and sped with dancing feat
from the room.
In the carriage she found the young
couple who had offered her the spare
seat there, and she found, also, the
Polish count, who was the last society
lion in the society of b, and who
was decidedly attracted by the witching
beauty of the gay brunette. Whether
it had been whispered lp his ear that
SO was heiress to Wheaton and S.. 900 a
year can only be conjectured; but he
was a most devoted adorer, and Nettle
| carelessly encouraged his attentions.
She had inherited Wheaton from her
grandfather when she was a little child,
and her father being dead, her mother
had shared the guardianship of the little
heiress with her Uncle Joshua, so that
summer at Wheaton was followed each
year by winter in the city, where
~school-days were succeeded by all the
pleasures Of society after Nettie passed
her 18th year. 1t must be confessed
that the bright little beauty was o pet
ted, spoiled child "a willful girl, whose
life had been one long sunshine, with
every within INDUCED, every caprice
grati6ed.
Serious thoughts had found little
place in her giddy head and pleasure
loving heart, till the Rev. Alfred Mar
tin accepted a call to the village of
Morton, near which Wheaton was Sit
uated. He vas not a handsome man,
not a fascinating man in any sense that
Nettie had ever thought of the word,
but he had one gift that embraces many
others In a truly Christian minister-he
was earnest. To him the vocation of
his life was one that absorbed heart and
brain, to the exclusion of all effort to
be attractive III society or win worldly
praise. Yet the very sincerity of this
man, fully ten years her senior, proved
a charm Nettie could not resist.
From the careless ease of her petted
life, his sermons, like trump ct calls,
reused her to a sense of the responsible
lily resting upon her as a woman hold
ing In her hands the gifts of perfect
Aealtb, energy and wealth. Like a
butterfly, she has tasted sweets here
and there, thinking but little of the
bitter CUPS given to the less fortunate,
till the earnest appeals of the new
preacher stirred her to considering the
stewardship intrusted to her care.
She had no thought of pleasing the
minister when she took up a share of
the parish duty, sewed for The Dorcas
and visited the sick and poor. AdGira-
ton and attention had been offered her
too freely ri her to dream of counting
them, but, impulsiye In everything, she
threw the whole force of her ardent,
generous nature into the new path of
duty Mr.. Martins eloquence had poin-
ted out TO er.
n large proportion of her income was
drawn from a large cotton factory in
Morton, and among the operatives there
Nettle soon found employment for leis-
ure hours and avenues for spare dol.
lars.
1t was in the spring that Mr.. Martin
came to Morton, and in the summer a
contagious fever broke out in the set.
Element where the mill operatives dwelt
in small tenement-houses. 1t vas I'M
possible for Nettie to enter into any
understanding with lukewarm interest
and, eHce engaged in trying to aid the
: sufferers. she devoted time and money
with an unsparing hand. Her own glo-